My name is Dave Stancliff. Walk down the road of life with me each day. You'll find news and my views. I'm a Vietnam Veteran, father to three sons, proud grandfather 5 times over, an independent thinker, and a former newspaper publisher and editor.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said that law enforcement needs support despite there being a "few bad apples" — an apparent reference to the recent spate of police shootings of unarmed people.(source)

Here’s a thought; who would protect us from people like Shannon Miles – a cold-blooded murderer – if we didn’t have cops? It’s really quite simple, without cops we slip into total anarchy.

A just-released study found that although the United States has just about 5 percent of the world's population, it has 31 percent of the world's mass shooters.

The possible association between mass shootings and a desire for fame is particularly eerie, given the nation's latest high-profile killing.

A former employee at a local news station in Virginia killed a reporter and a cameraman on-air, while filming the shooting with a GoPro camera. He later posted the film to social media.

The apparent desire to broadcast the crime places the killer in the same company as many notorious mass shooters of the past decade. (The History of Human Aggression)

YOUTH MOVEMENT

Experts are finding that younger shooters want attention. That's why you see them wanting to have a bigger head count, a bigger body count, to try to outdo the last one or to do something that is going to cause more of a rise.

OVERALL CRIME STATS DROPPING

Interestingly, the rise in active-shooter events bucks the general trend toward less violent crime in the United States: Overall violent crime dropped 14.5 percent between 2004 and 2013, according to the FBI.

Research published in July found that states with more gun-owning households had higher rates of firearm assault, robbery, homicide and overall homicide compared with states with fewer gun owners.

There is a 'fame at any cost' mentality.

Many mass killers explicitly cite fame as their motivation: A quick Google search for "wanted to top Columbine" reveals multiple news articles about killers or would-be killers mentioning the 1999 school shooting as their inspiration.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

The answer is simple, but probably unattainable thanks to gun lobbies and the NRA – make it harder to buy guns by having a nationwide backround check on prospective buyers.

Also, get the media to focus more on victims instead of their killers who are looking for their 15-minutes of fame.

The possibilities are endless. You could change colors every three months (that’s how long the paint is supposed to last before needing touched up).

Red-white-and blue lawns would undoubtedly be popular during patriotic holidays (4th of July, Veteran’s Day, and Memorial Day).

Go retro at Christmas with a green lawn. Maybe add touches of red reminiscent of Santa’s outfit for that extra festive look.

Valentine Day offers romantics a chance to paint their lawns pink with purple letters spelling out their names.

Yeah…you have to have a green lawn for St. Patrick’s Day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a dash of gold for good luck.

Perhaps the best chance for people to really get crazy with their designer lawns is Halloween. Black and orange lawns will be di rigueur. Blood-red lawns will also blossom in neighborhoods celebrating All Hallows Eve.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

I’m trying to understand where the line is between political correctness run amok, and legitimate claims of racism.

It’s not easy.

For example:

A recent news story reported that members of a mostly black women's book club said a luxury Napa Valley wine train kicked them off because of their race.

Okay. So I did a little research.

The fact is that Napa Valley wine train kicks off a group every month (on average) for being too rowdy. Think about it. People drinking booze and partying.

I’m not saying any of the women were drunk. I don’t know that. But, according to the story they were warned multiple times to keep their hilarity down to a low roar because they were disturbing other passengers.

Getting kicked off the Napa train is not an unusual circumstance. However, this group of mostly black women are claiming they were kicked off because of their race. If that isn’t playing the race card I don’t know what is.

In the tense atmosphere of racial accusations of injustice, Americans are divided on what to do to make things better. One of those camps is all about political correctness gone wild. They play the race card regardless of the situation.

That camp is a problem for everyone.

Legitimate accusations against authorities and racists are watered down by those who chose to take advantage of certain situations to benefit themselves – or make themselves appear to be innocent victims of racism.

My problem is trying to figure out who is taking advantage of being black, and who isn’t.

The one’s that are available to American hobbyists/consumers, businesses, and people with bad intentions.

Rogue drones operators are rapidly becoming a threat to our national security as they interfere with private, commercial, and firefighting aircraft. They invade sensitive airspace and private property — with the regulators of the nation’s skies largely powerless to stop them.

Meanwhile, the lax regulation we have consists largely of an educational campaign that warns drone pilots of the few rules that exist, such as no flights more than 400 feet in the air, or no flights within 5 miles of an airport.

You’ll notice however that in both cases the men reverted back to their white identity after a certain period of time. Their deception was short-lived but it gave a realistic look at the lives of blacks without ultimately lying about their own race.

Black activists – regardless of their color – would do well to read both accounts. That way the minions on the Right won’t have fodder to discredit the “Black Lives Matter” activists.